Series: Renewal
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
Daniel 1:1-4 ESV
2 Kings 24:12-16 MSG
Jeremiah 29:10-11 The Message
EZRA 1:1-3 ESV
While Jeremiah 29:11 is quoted a lot today because it’s a beautiful passage that gives us hope, the original words were given at a time when the words were desperately needed and welcomed.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
The initial message of the text was given to Israel and it referred to the time period between 597 B.C.E. and 538 B.C.E. during the Babylonian conquest and eventual captivity of the Jews in Palestine (the Diaspora). The Diaspora refers to the scattering of the Jews among the Gentiles when the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzer II conquered Israel (Judah) and deported chosen citizens to Babylon. Women and older men were left in their homeland of Judah while others were taken captive.
That meant those left behind in Israel had to learn to survive.
In 587/6 B.C.E. the brightest and best of Judah were captured and taken to Babylon. Among those captured were Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel and they were chosen to live in the King’s Court. We know from Daniel 1:1-4, “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim King of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.”
History tells us “In 587 B.C.E. Nebuchadnezzar besieged and took Jerusalem, allowed his troops to plunder parts of it, razed to the ground the temple that had stood for almost four hundred years, abolished the kingdom of Judah, and carried several thousand inhabitants of Jerusalem off to destinations east of the Euphrates river.”
The Babylonians destroyed and plundered the city. The took everything of value to Babylon. They destroyed the Temple built 400 years earlier by King Solomon. Describing the destruction as a ‘razing’ of the Temple meant they completely destroyed it to the ground. Nothing remained. To someone visiting it would have appeared like a Temple had never been there.
We learn from 2 Kings 24:12-16, “In the eighth year of his reign Jehoiachin was taken prisoner by the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar emptied the treasuries of both The Temple of God and the royal palace and confiscated all the gold furnishings that Solomon king of Israel had made for The Temple of God. This should have been no surprise—God had said it would happen. And then he emptied Jerusalem of people—all its leaders and soldiers, all its craftsmen and artisans. He took them into exile, something like ten thousand of them! The only ones he left were the very poor. He took Jehoiachin into exile to Babylon. With him he took the king’s mother, his wives, his chief officers, the community leaders, anyone who was anybody—in round numbers, seven thousand soldiers plus another thousand or so craftsmen and artisans, all herded off into exile in Babylon.”
Imagine what it would have been like for those who were left behind!
And so…the promise made in Jeremiah 29:11 was not an individual promise.
It was a promise given to a country, a nation that had been gutted. The Temple that Solomon built was gone forever. Nothing remained to build on. Their National treasures were gone. The royal family and the strong men were taken from them.
The promise of renewal from Yahweh God was their only hope.
The Prophet Jeremiah gave them that hope. We learn from Jeremiah 29:10-11, “This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”
The promise was to God’s chosen people who had lost everything.
Imagine with me if you will what that would be like today if that happened in your country, your homeland.
Not only would the complete and utter military defeat change the structure, between two thousand to ten thousand citizens were taken captive and taken to another land. Add to that, when it happened the only means of communication was by mouth. Fathers, sons, and notable women were taken without warning. Suddenly they were gone and nothing was known about what happened to them.
In today’s world that would be like a total loss of all the Cellular Towers meaning complete loss of all communication outside your neighborhood.
For those of us who were born before television and cell phones were readily available we have some idea what it’s like to speak to our neighbors to see what they news they had heard.
My Mother was born in the late 1920’s and she remembers what communication was like during the 1930’s. Loss of television and cell phones today would take us back at least 75 years and young people who have always had excess to cell phones would be in shock.
The greatest impact to the ones who were left behind would have been felt by older Mothers and wives who suddenly had to learn to survive. Those who had no hunting or gathering skills would have been forced to quickly learn how to survive.
Since the exile lasted around seventy years, the older women who remained in Israel would have died before their loved ones returned. The promise for them would have required great faith…God has a plan for Israel. They are plans for good and not evil. God’s plan IS for a future and a hope for your descendants.
The proclamation in Ezra 1:1-3 tells us, “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem.”
In 538 B.C.E. the exile formally ended and the captives were allowed to return to their homeland In Israel. God had a plan and a hope for Israel and they were allowed to return home to rebuild for their descendants.
God was true to His promise!
Spiritual Practice: Trust
If you are waiting on a promise from God, KNOW THIS…the promise is real and in time God WILL show you the WAY.
In God, Deborah
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